We adopted Nudistarré!

On 9 August 2008, the Naked Hermit Crabs were at the IYOR 2008 Singapore Reef Celebration and adopted a Cyrene Star which we named Nudistarré!



By looking at its photo, you can probably guess why we named it so. *grin* Most complimentary to our own naked selves of course!



Today, 3 weeks after the event, we finally received our star kit and adoption certificate. For a donation of $60 (the highest in the 2 days of adoption drive), the NHC adopted the star previously known as CR020. Nudistarré and its 99 other friends from Cyrene Reef were up for "adoption". You can't bring them home but the money goes into more Reef Celebrations and the printing of the upcoming blue plan by the IYOR committee in Singapore.


Nudistarré is just a teenage star with lots of years ahead of it! With luck, it'll get to live its full life span on Cyrene Reef!

In return, we will be updated every time the Nudistarré is spotted by the Star Trackers on Cyrene Reef. How exciting! The Star Trackers even gave Nudistarré its own blog page on their blog!

Naked Hermit Crabs do Chek Jawa Boardwalk tours

The Crabs are featured in today's Sunday Times!

If you are reading our blog for the first time, we would like to say "Hi !".

The Naked Hermit Crabs are a group of nature lovers who have come together to raise awareness of Singapore's natural shores and the amazing marine life and ecosystems found in them. We do a wide range of nature conservation activities related to shores and reefs, and among them, we also run a free nature walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk every last Sunday of the month.

To find out more about our Chek Jawa Boardwalk tours, please read this post.

We have a small plea to make .... in the last 2 months, we have had huge crowds at our Chek Jawa tours. We would like to ask that you come in only small family or friend groups of not more than 6 people. We will take our visitors out on a first-come-first-serve basis and will stop accepting additional visitors once we run out of guides. Meanwhile, we are training more new guides and hope to improve the situation over the next couple of months. Thank you for your understanding!

The free nature walks at Chek Jawa Boardwalk are kindly sponsored by our friends at Transitions Optical, world leader in the manufacturing of plastic photochromic lenses.

Chek Jawa Boardwalk No Enough? More shores to visit....

Pulau Hantu

Dive with the Hantu Bloggers

http://www.pulauhantu.org/

Chek Jawa

Intertidal walk with the Ubin NParks volunteers

http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=29&Itemid=73

Cyrene Reef

Field trip with the "I want to go Cyrene" facebook group. See link at

www.wildsingapore.com/places/cyrene.htm

Kusu Island

Reefwalk with the Blue Water Volunteers

http://www.bluewatervolunteers.org/

Pulau Semakau

Intertidal walk with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/workshop/semakau_workshop.php

Sungei Buloh

Guided tour with the Buloh volunteers

http://www.sbwr.org.sg/

Btw, "Happy National Day" to everyone!

Naked at Reef Celebrations!

The Naked Hermit Crabs had a fabulous time at Reef Celebrations!Together with the Star Trackers (Sijie and Chee Kong), the Crabs ran the Adopt a Star booth. Here is November sharing about the special Knobbly sea stars of Cyrene.And Vyna with all the 100 stars of Cyrene that are up for adoption.

9 Aug (Sat) - the Crabs celebrate IYOR Launch

Dear Friends,

Please treat this as a personal invitation to celebrate the International Year of the Reef (IYOR) Launch with us on 9 Aug at the Singapore Botanic Gardens (Botany Centre).


You've come for our Chek Jawa Boardwalk trips and our Sentosa shore walks. Why not join us too at the Botanic Gardens to gain a bigger picture of all the reefs in Singapore? You will also get to meet the large community of nature lovers who are involved in many aspects of reef and inter-tidal shore conservation work.

The Crabs are participating in this exciting event with a number of fun activities.

Adopt a unique Singapore star and learn more about Cyrene Reef, a major Knobbly Nursery!

Celebration Guestbook: Speak up for our shores! Leave a comment, draw a drawing on this special art effort by the Naked Hermit Crabs

Colour our shores: colouring station with special cartoons to colour and learn about our shores by the Naked Hermit Crabs

Exhibition booth - 100 Stars of Cyrene: posters of unique stars found on our uniquely Singapore reef and our other shores by the Star Trackers and the Naked Hermit Crabs

A few of the Crabs will be conducting talks for the public on that day.

10.30am: "Life and Death at Chek Jawa" sharing experiences of a study of mass deaths on Chek Jawa following flooding in 2007, a talk by Loh Kok Sheng http://cjproject.blogspot.com/

11.30am: "Wishing upon a Star" about our Knobbly sea stars, a recent emergence of baby Knobblies and discovery of a large population at Cyrene Reef, a talk by Tan Sijie, Star Trackers http://startrackers.blogspot.com/

It will be an action-packed day at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on National Day. Come and join us in celebration of the wonderful reefs in Singapore. See you there!

Date: 9 August 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 10am-5pm
Venue: Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens (above Taman Serasi foodcourt)
Contact: iyor08singapore@gmail.com

- the Crabs

9 Aug (Sat): Reef Celebrations! Launch of IYOR in Singapore

The marine community celebrates our nation's priceless reefs this National Day with the Singapore launch of International Year of the Reef!

Everyone is invited!

Time: 10am-5pm

Venue: Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens (above Taman Serasi foodcourt)

Contact: iyor08singapore@gmail.com

With a slew of activities for all, come find out about Singapore's living shores and how you can make a difference for them.

A shore fun day for the entire family! Kids' games and activities so even the youngest ones (aged 4-8 years) can learn about our marine life and what we can do to help.

Be a Star! Adopt a unique Singapore star and learn more about Cyrene Reef, a major Knobbly Nursery.

Our reefs revealed! As volunteers share about our reefs and shores and the work they have been doing. A rare opportunity to meet ALL major marine groups active on our shores and find out how you too can make a difference.

Exciting exhibits! See Singapore's living shores without getting your feet wet. Find out about the latest marine projects, and threats to and work done for our shores. Come see rarely seen specimens, including a baby dugong.

Special talks throughout the day! Come find out if there are any reefs left in Singapore and about diving Singapore's wild reefs at Pulau Hantu. Learn more about our Knobbly sea stars; how is Chek Jawa doing after the mass deaths in 2007?; and about our wild and wacky seagrass meadows. Film clips about our amazing marine life will also be shown throughout the day.

To read the full programme for 9 Aug, check out the IYOR website.